Mprovedent in burial caskets



0. m. ALLEN.

Burial-Basket. I

No, 161,852, Patented April13,1875.

Q [71 7/6 72 f 0 7 ml nesses:

THE GRAPHIC C0.PNOTO.-LITH.39&4| PARK PLAOE,N.Y.

OSCAR M. ALLEN, OF KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN BURIAL GASKETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 161,852, dated April 13, 1875; application filed February 24, 1875.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, OSCAR. M. ALLEN, of the village and county of Kalamazoo and State of Michigan, have invented certain Improvements in Burial Gaskets, of which the following is a specification:

The present invention consists in pivoting the quarter longitudinal sections A B, which form the cover, so that they shall rotate on the outside of the casket or receptacle for holding the body, when so required, thereby cheapenin g the expense of construction by obviating the necessity for an inside tray and attachment, which is indispensable in all caskets in which the lid or cover is rotated or revolved within an outer case. I use rubber or other packing, so employed that, when the sections composing the cover are raised, closed, and locked together, an air-tightreceptacle may be formed.

In the drawings, Figure 2 is an end View of the casket, and Fig. 1 is a plan view of the same, with both sections of the cover raised.

Similar letters of reference indicate like parts in the several figures.

The letter A in the drawing represents the casket, made of wood or other suitable material for holding the body, and, while ordinarily it would be made, as represented, with straight flaring sides, especially when it is designed to cover the casket with broadcloth or other fabric, festooned and otherwise ornamented, yet, when the object is to veneer the casket in the finer woods, and where elegance of design is wanted, I should make this receptacle to approximate in shape to that of the lower half of an urn, (in cross-section,) with the base shaped out of a solid plank of wood and fastened to the casket, or it mightbe provided with ornamental bracket-feet of metal. The cover, composed of the two paneled sections A and B, I usually make in the form approaching to that of quarter longitudinal sections of cylinders, and either with closed or with open and ornamental-shaped ends, made of wood or metal. These sections of the cover are made large enough to fit over the casket, and receive between the ends and sides of the casket and sections of the cover a suitable rubber packing, which is usually fastened to and around the sides and near the upper edge of the casket, and also along the meeting-edges of the sections, to prevent the escape of gases, as well as the odor from liquids used in the preservation of the corpse. These sections are so pivoted to the ends of the casket O, as shown in Fig. 1, that when said sections are elevated, closed, and locked, air-tight joints will be formed all around.

Anyordinarypivot-catches b and metal stud cl are usually employed to support one section of the cover while the other is raised to close the burial case.

In the present invention, besides producing an elegant-appearing casket, and at small expense, I materially reduce the height, while retaining the ordinary width, and, in so doing, I form a properly-proportioned casket by making the sections A and B to lower very nearly to the bottom of said casket, leaving sufficient room so that the drapery will not interfere with the lowering of the sections, should the casket be covered with cloth.

I am aware that it is not new to construct a casket with a cover composed of two sections rotating within an outer case, 850., as this has been granted to Hosea Henika and Myron F. (larder, under date of June 3, 1873 but,

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The two sections A and B of the cover, pivoted and operating on the outside of the casket, as herein described and set forth.

To the above specification of my invention 1 have signed my name this 15th day of February, A. D. 1875.

OSCAR M. ALLEN.

Witnesses:

LEONARD GRovER, Orro L. JOHNSON. 

